went to a place in troy mo sat and shot sporting clays for the 1st time. man that was the most fun ive ever had shooting clay birds. we shot 200 targets each and it was a hoot. i got 100 of them boogers. some cheap and others smoked. i guess thats not too bad for the first time out. cant wait to go again.

If you get out another time or two you'll get hooked. It happened to me and I get out for sporting as much as possible. Going to different clubs is fun because the targets and terrain is different everywhere. I find the targets to be different every time even at the same club. No comparison to trap but I don't mean that in a bad or disrespectiful way. Skeet is also good practice for sporting. Just picked up a shooting cart, this will work out great when we get out. Will make it easier for our small posse of guys to get around.

I still shoot alot of trap. My heart will be always in trap because of how I started and people I know. It's easy to find a place to shoot tray in my area. Someone is always shooting during the week day or night.

Fun for sure. That's why trap shooters started shooting variations of sporting clays in the 1800's.

The game has been here in the US for well over a hundred years. They just didn't call it sporting clays.

I've compiled articles about walk up shooting in 1884. You might be surprised to learn of the Ligowsky Clay Pigeon Field Contest, held at Metropolitan Park, NYC in August 1884, familiarly called "the walking match."

There were "incomers" in 1892 and a form of "5-stand" in 1899. Wobble, quail walks, tower shooting and a gun club in 1916 who had traps hidden in the brush & woods and the shooter walked through the course ready to shoot. He never called for a target, the trapper just set them off at will.

I've always attributed the term "golf with a shotgun" to Edward Cave who wrote "Clay Bird Golf" back around 1913. Sporting Clays was not imported from England in the early 1980's as just about every article written on the subject suggests.

Someday I plan to do an entire article on the true history of sporting clays in the U. S. I'd really like to set the record straight. Anyone who needs proof can read WINCHESTER-WESTERN TRAP & SKEET EQUIPMENT AND INSTRUCTION MANUAL 1958, pages 59-61. There you'll read about a course featuring: Duckskeet, Duck Tower, Rabbit Run, Quail Walk and Grouse Range.

Here's an old article about Clay Bird Golf:

CLAY-BIRD GOLF

Clay-bird golf is a new sort of game that will appeal to the business man who wants to exercise and likes to shoot, but who finds the wholesale slaughter of birds repugnant. The game is played on a stretch of rough land, similar in extent and irregularity to the average golf course; but instead of holes there are traps concealed at varying intervals along the course. As gunners tramp over the ground clay birds of different shapes and sizes are released from the traps, so that the sportsmen get the same kind of unexpected shots that live wild birds would offer in their natural haunts. Clay-bird golf violates no game laws, sheds no blood, causes no suffering – and yet there are healthy, vigorous men who enjoy it. – Youth’s Companion.
[ THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL, April 23, 1914, page 14, column 4 ]

I hope I've provided some interesting facts about a fun game, started by trap shooters who wanted a game that more closely simulated field hunting, was fun and was not as regimented as trap shooting.

Sporting Clays is all the fun in the world. I've gotten back into trap as all the sporting clays ranges around here are shutting down. I do miss sporting, I guess I'll grow up to be a "grumpy ol' trapshooter".

Thanks for the information Kenny, I love it when someone climes in that knows what they are talking about. I plan on shooting my first sporting clays in the near future. I went to the cardinal center last week to shoot trap and took a tour of the sporting course! Impressive to say the least, they have a 60 foot tower with an elevator that can support up to 6 machines. I will always be a trap shooter at heart but a few sporting can't hurt. Can it? I want to mention the staff was very friendly and went an extra step to make us feel welcome, they even got us a golf cart and told us to take a tour.

Spacegun--Don't you think the shooting sports would attract more interest (people) if all clubs & their different games would treat people the way you were treated????? In my travels I have been welcomed at new (to me) clubs like a long lost brother and at others almost got the feeling I was bothering them, guess which ones I returned to. Ross Puls

I shot sporting clays a couple of times and had a great time, shot it with a trap gun and near as I could tell the targets I hit didn't know the difference ... 68/100, 72/100 I didn't think I was doing well until I found out I was second high gun of the 5 guys shooting ... WPT ... (YAC) ...

well i plan on going out many many more times. i started shooting trap in 1974. got pretty good at it . then i bought a harley in 1987 and started touring the country. sold the harley in 2008 when the doctor told my wife she couldnt ride anymore. she is a now a 2 time cancer survior-breast and brain cancer. the chemo and radiation have made her bones too brittle and it would kill if we went down. i said well i guess ill get back into shooting. i joined a trap club 3 miles from the house and started up again. one of the members introduced me to sporting clays yesterday and as they say the rest is history. im lookung for a golf cart now to ride the courses-ive got a bad knee. the history of sporting clays is interesting. yes i was told that no 2 courses are alike. im looking forward to going the other courses my friend said that are within 70 miles from my home. we have 5 courses that i know of in mo and ill. looking forward to hitting them all and improving my scores. thanks for the input and history guys. rich

There is a Iron Man Shoot in 2 weeks in the Denver CO area, 6 different course, 100 rds each course in 2 days, it is called the Iron Man 6-2-6, Sporting Clays at it's finest you see 6 different courses and every presentation you can think of.

The speed and variations of sporting clays are attracting young people into to clay target shooting. Our youth have honed their eye and hand coordination on video games, games that demands sharp vision and quick reflexes to score high. A good percentage of our youth find trap shooting mundane and unchallenging after a few rounds and if exposed to sporting clays will switch and stay with this faster and more challeging game. Me, I love trap shooting and really enjoy sporting clays, it's a kick to shoot.